
.5- 



E 458 ^ 

.2 

.B21 

Copy 1 

MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION. 



Oration delivered hy George Bancroft before the Mayor, Common Council, 
and Citizens of New York, on the 22d of February, 1862, at the request of 
the Common Council. 

"Ubi Judicia deoinunt incipit bellum."— 5i/- Edward Hyde agaimt the Ship- 
money Judges. 4 Somers'' Tracts, 304. 

^Iek of Few York : As the organ of tlie city of New York on 
tills occasion, it is my first duty to remind you that we owe thanks 
to Almighty God for the patriots who achieved the independence 
of the United States, and who formed "the unity of government 
which constitutes us one people." To-day we declare to peoples 
and to princes that that union is complete and shall not be impair- 
ed, is dear to us and shall be preserved. The wise and the good in 
each hemisphere desire us to continue one ; every fibre of the sen- 
sitive heai t of the indivisible France, in spite of some appearances, 
throbs in favor of our existence as a nation ; the people of England 
I shall believe are with us, so long as there are among them men 
like Bright and Stuart Mill ; Italy has learned from us to adhere to 
her passion for bringing together the country which the selfishness 
of oppression had dismembered ; and the ill-cemented fragments of 
Germany derive from us a hope of a better reunion. The most 
wonderful career of improvement in the history of the race is the 
witness that we are a nation. Now, in the day of our tribulation, 
the people have proved that they are inspired with life by their 
uprising in the majesty of undivided conviction, concentrated 
power, and determined pui-pose ; by their unrepining resignation 
to suftering and privation ; by their sublime patience under strange 
discomfitures and weary delays and long-continued inactivity, from 
inability and perplexity, or from judgment and choice ; by their 
outspoken joy when the spell was broken of the seeming paralysis 
of their gigantic preparations; by the heartiness of their response 
to General Grant when he jiroposed " to move immediately on the 
enemy's works." Now the rulers of the earth will come to know 
that under the Constitution which make's us one people, there exists 



104 MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION ,'B'2' ^ 

no authority that can aUenate a single inch of the territory of the 
United States; that while we claim for each individual the right 
of emigration, there is no possible conspiracy, combination, or con- 
vention that can discharge any one citizen from his allegiance so 
long as he remains on our soil, though each one may for himself 
dissolve that allegiance by self-exile and flight. These many and 
ever-increasing United States are one, now and for coming ages. 

The only ground of hope for the perpetuity of our Union, you 
will find, men of New York, in the words of Washington, spoken 
in this city. When, in the presence of your fathers, Washington, 
standing under the canopy of the sky, had taken the oath to support 
the Constitution, he returned into the Senate Chamber, to interpret 
to the First Congress the principles of our great charter, and the fit 
policy for the nation to pursue. Then it was that he laid down as 
their rule "the pure and immutable principles of private morality," 
and " the eternal rules of order and right tchich Heaven itself has 
ordaiiied.^'' And the House of Representatives, using the pen of 
Madison to frame its answer, accepted his enlightened maxims, 
and owned the obligation to "adore the invisible hand which has 
led the American people through so many difficulties, to cherish a 
conscious responsibility for the destiny of Republican liberty." On 
these principles the government which makes us pne people was 
put in motion, while the foundations of monarchy in France were 
crumbling away, and the beams that upheld the civilization of the 
Middle Ages were falling in. During the half century which suc- 
ceeded, France underwent more revolutions than I can readily 
count up ; Spain had many forms of government in rapid succes- 
sion; the dynasty of Portugal was driven for refuge to South 
America ; the empire of Germany went down in the whirlpool of 
revolution ; Russia has been convulsed by a fearful plot for insur- 
rection ; Italy was many times reconstructed ; the Pope lost and 
won temporal powei", and has been almost shorn of it again ; the 
institutions of Great Britain have been thrice essentially modified 
by the annexation of Ireland; by the reform of Parliament, which 
"was, in fact, a revolution; and by opening the doors of its two 
Houses to men of all creeds ; and bloody insurrections have shaken 
English power to its foundation in Ireland, Canada, and Ilindostau. 

During all these convulsions the United States stood unchanged, 
admitting none but the slightest modifications in its charter, and 
proving itself the most stable government of the civilized world. 
But at last "we have fallen on evil days." " The propitious smiles of 



ON THE TWENTY-SECOND OF FEBRUARY, 1862. 195 

Heaven," such are the words of "Washington, " can never be expect- 
ed on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right." 
During eleven years of perverse government those rules were disre- 
garded; and it came to pass that incn who should firmly avow the 
sentiments of Washington, and JelTersou, and Franklin, and Chan- 
cellor Livingston were disfranchised for the public service ; that tiio 
spotless chief-justice whom "Washington placed at the Ijcad of our 
Supreme Court could by no possibility have been nominated fur 
that ofiice, or confirmed. Nay, the corrupt iuflucnce invaded even 
the very home of justice. The final decree of the Supreme Court, 
in its decision on a particular case, must be respected and obeyed ; 
the present chief-justice has, on one memorable appeal, accompan- 
ied his decision with an impassioned declamation, wherein, with 
profound immorality, which no one has as yet fully laid bare, treat- 
ing the people of the "CTnited States as a shrew to be tamed by an 
open scorn of the facts of history, with a dreary industry collecting 
cases where justice may have slumbered or weakness been op- 
pressed, compensating for want of evidence by confidence of asser- 
tion, with a partiality that would have disgraced an advocate 
neglecting humane decisions of colonial courts and the enduring 
memorials of colonial statute-books, in his party zeal to prove that 
the fathers of our country held the negro to have " no rights which 
the white man was bound to respect," he has not only denied the 
rights of man and the liberties of mankind, but has not left a foot- 
hold for the liberty of the white man to rest upon. 

That ill-starred disquisition is the starting-point of this rebellion, 
which, for a quarter of a century, had been vainly preparing to 
raise its head. " When courts of justice fail, war begins." The so- 
called opinion of Taney, who, I trust, did not intend to hang out the 
flag of disunion, that rash oftense to the conscious memory of the 
millions, upheaved our country with the excitement which swept 
over those of us who vainly hoped to preserve a strong and suffi- 
cient though narrow isthmus that might stand between the conflict- 
ing floods. No nation can adopt that judgment as its rule and live ; 
the judgment has in it no element of political vitality; I will not 
say it is an invocation of the dead past ; there never was a past that 
accepted such opinions. If we want the opinions received in the 
days when our Constitution was framed, we will not take them sec- 
ond-hand from our chief-justice; we will let the men of that day 
speak for themselves. How will our American magistrate sink 
when arraigned, as he will be, before the tribunal of humanity ! how 



lOG • ^''- BANCIIOFT'S ORATION 

terrible will be the verdict against liirn, when he is put in compar- 
ison with "Washington's political teacher, the great Montesquieu, the 
enlightened magistrate of France, in what are esteemed the worst 
days of her monarchy ! The argument from the difference of race 
which Taney thrusts forward with passionate confidence, as a proof 
of complete disqualification, is brought forward by Montesquieu as 
a scathing satire on all the brood of despots who were supposed to 
uphold slavery as tolerable in itself. The rights of mankind, that 
precious word which had no equivalent in the language of Hindo- 
stan, or Judea, or Greece, or Eome, or any ante-Christian tongue, 
found their supporter in Washington and Hamilton, in Franklin and 
Livingston, in Otis, George Mason, and Gadsden ; in all the great- 
est men of our early history. The one rule from which the makers 
of our first Confederacy, and then of our national Constitution, 
never swerved, is this : to fix no constitutional disability on any 
one. Whatever might stand in the way of any man from opin- 
ion, ancestry, weakness of mind, inferiority or inconvenience of any 
kind, -was itself not formed into a permanent disfranchisement. 
The Constitution of the United States was made under the recog- 
nized influence of " the eternal rule of order and right," so that, 
as far as its jurisdiction extends, it raised at once the numerous 
class who had been chattels into the condition of persons; it 
neither originates nor perpetuates inequality. 

It is another trait in Washington's character which may particu- 
larly interest this opulent city, where enterprise, and skill, and 
industry are forever producing and amassing wealth, that while he 
held the acquisition of fortune by honest ways a proper object of 
desire, he drew a careful distinction between the pursuits of busi- 
ness and the service of his country. He held that every man must 
be ready to devote to the good of his country his ability, his wealth, 
and his life ; and he never suffered the public service to become to 
him a source of gain. It is rumored that men among us have 
known how to obtain from the government, for a moderate, and 
incidental, and essentially irresponsible use of little else than their 
judgment, sums of money which exceed the w-hole direct tax levied 
upon one of our smaller States. If this be so, while it implies a 
shameful want of patriotism in individuals, it implies also a blam- 
able want of sagacity in the executive departments which must 
have made their selections of agents perversely or blindfold. In 
the name of this city, I declare the great body of its people to have 
a patriotism without blemish of selfishness. In the name of the 



ON TIIK TWENTY-SECOND OF FEBRUARY, 1SC2. 



107 



Clianibei- of Commerce, may I not venture to say of our merchants, 
as a class, that the pretence of a necessity for resorting to extrav- 
agant compensation for simple, ordinary service, is a calumny on a 
body of generous and devotedly patriotic men ? In the name of 
the mechanics I repel the insinuation ; and it is known to all that 
the conduct of the poor of our city, during this war, lias, for disin- 
terestedness, and exalted feeling, and firm resolve, and courageous 
resignation, gone beyond all praise. 

The disinterestedness of Washington's conduct beams foi-th in 
still greater beauty, when, for the benefit of this age, we recall his 
conduct toward his generals, lie took care of their honor even 
more carefully than if it had been his own. It was his delight to 
give them opportunities for distinction, and when danger menaced 
alike himself and a general in another department, lie would cheer- 
fully send to his subordinate the best part of his force, and suffer 
no one to risk a defeat so soon as himself. 

Nor should we forget that Washington was always vigilant; 
that he never was taken by surprise; that, with all his caution, he 
never missed an opportunity of striking a blow; that he never 
sent his army forward excej^t with himself as its leader; that he 
never exposed them to deep roads and bad weather except when 
they could derive encouragement from his own presence and exam- 
ple ; that he was always under fire with his men, and committed 
no error in the field but from excess of personal courage. 

We must not forget that in the war of the Revolution, Washing- 
ton, among other great objects, bore arms for the maritime rights 
of neutrals. When so many officers in our navy showed signs of 
disaftection, the first impulse of public feeling might approve a bold 
act, which spoke for the fidelity of a gallant commander. The just 
indignation which is felt at the conspirators who struck at our life 
as a nation, might exult when several of the least worthy of them 
fell into our hands. But this excitement only shed a brighter 
lustre on the moderation of the people, and their perfect mastery 
over their passions. With one voice, all have agreed that due 
respect must be shown to the neutral flag, A ship at sea is a por- 
tion of the territory of the power whose flag she may rightly bear, 
No naval officer of another nation may exercise judicial power on 
her deck ; the free sliip frees the cargo ; a neutral ship in a voyage 
between neutral ports is protected by her flag; the passenger who 
in a neutral port steps on board a neutral ship, honestly bound for 
another neutral port, is as safe against seizure as if he were a guest 



108 ^lE- BANCROrT-3 OEATION 

at the Tuileries or a barrister before a court iu Westminster Hall. 
Tliese good rules will gain renewed strength from their recognition 
by the American people in the very moment of a just indignation 
against men who were guilty of the darkest treason, and had fallen 
into their hands. 

Washington not only upheld the liberty of the ocean; he was a 
thorough Eopublican. And how has our history justified his pref- 
erence ? How has this very rebellion borne testimony to the virtue 
and durability of popular institutions ? The rebellion which we 
are putting down was the conspiracy of the rich, of opulent men, 
who count laborers as their capital. Our wide-extended sufTrage 
is not only utterly innocent of it — it is the power which will not 
fail to crush it. The people prove their right to a popular govern- 
ment; they have chosen it, and have kept it in healthy motion ; 
they will sustain it now, and hand it down in its glory and its 
power to their posterity. And this is true not only of men who 
were born on our soil, but of foreign-born citizens. Let the Euro- 
pean skeptic about the large extension of the suffrage come among 
us, and we will show him a spectacle wonderful in his eyes, grand 
beyond his power of conception. That which in this contest is 
marked above all that has appeared is, the oneness of heart and 
purpose with which all the less wealthy classes of our people, of all 
nationalities, are devoted to the flag of the Union. The foreigners 
whom we have taken to our hearts and received as our fellow-cit- 
izens have been true to the country that has adopted them, have 
been sincere, earnest, and ready for every sacrifice. Slavery is the 
slow poison which has wrought all the evil ; and a proud and self- 
ish oligarchy are the authors of the conspiracy. 

A rumor reaches us, let us hope it is unfounded, that three pow- 
ers in Europe have combined to force a monarchical government 
upon the neighboring commonwealth of Mexico, at a time when 
she seems, if left to herself, better able to govern herself than ever 
heretofore. I confess I am unable to devise what material or what 
political interest of England can be promoted by this untoward 
pretension. Besides, America has never been a propagandist; our 
people, even in the days of our Eevolution, made no war on mon- 
archy, and did not even ask or seem to wish that their example 
might sway nations under different circumstances from our own. 
They left each hemisphere to take care of itself. A junction of 
three monarchs to put kingly power on our Hank has an import- 
ance wliich can not escape attention. The royal families of Europe 



ON THE TWENTY-SECOND OF FEBRUARY, lSC-2. jQQ 

would be justly incensed if the republican powers of America were 
to join together to attempt to force a republic on one of them. Is 
it right to attempt to force a monarchy on Americans ? Is it wise 
to provoke a collision between the systems? or to try experiments 
on the mysterious sympathies of the millions ? 

If the opinions of Washington on slavery and on the slave-trade 
had been steadily respected, the country would have escaped all the 
calamity of the present civil war. The famous Fairfox meeting, at 
which AVashington presided, on the 18th of July, 177-i, led public 
opinion in declaring that it was '• the most earnest wish of America 
to see an entire stop forever put to the wicked, cruel, and unnat- 
ural trade in slaves." The traffic was then condemned as an im- 
tnorality and a crime. The sentiment was thoroughly American, 
and became the tradition, the living faith of the people. The cen- 
turies clasp hands and repeat it one to another ! Yesterday the 
sentiment of Jefferson, that the slave-trade is a piratical warfare 
upon mankind, was reaffirmed by carrying into efiect the sentence 
of a high tribunal of justice; and to save the lives and protect the 
happiness of thousands, a slave-trader was executed as a pirate and 
an enemy of the human race. 

This day furnishes a spectacle of still more terrible retributive 
justice. The President of the pretended Confederate States of 
America is compelled to do public penance in his robes of office, for 
foolishly and wickedly aspiring to power that does not and can not 
exist, that dissolves and disappears as he draws near to grasp it. 
Missouri, which he has invaded, rises against him; Kentucky, 
where he desired to usurp authority, throws him off with indignant 
scorn ; Eastern Tennessee, where Andrew Johnson must soon be 
speaking for Union with clarion notes of patriotism, starts to her 
feet in time to protest against the usurper ; the people of Virginia, 
in their hearts, are against him ; perhaps even the majority of the 
inhabitants of Richmond may be weary of his aspirations ; and as 
he goes forth to-day to array himself in the unreal state for which 
lie panted, his consideration drops away from him in the presence 
of his worshipers, irretrievably and forever ; his conscience stings 
him with remorse for his crime; and the course of events convicts 
hira of arrogance and folly. His elevation is but to a pillory, 
where he stands the derision of the world. Richmond, Avhich he 
thought to make his capital, will soon be in the possession of one 
of our generals or of another, and nothing can save hira from the 
just wrath of his countrv but a hastv exile. 



JIQ MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

If the views of Washington with regard to the slave-trade com- 
mend tliemsclves to our approbation after the lapse of nearly ninety 
years, his opinions on slavery are so temperate and so clear that if 
they had been followed they would have established peace among 
us forever. On the 12th of April, 1786, he wrote to Robert Mor- 
ris : " There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I 
do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery." This was 
his fixed opinion ; so that in the following month he declared to 
Lafayette : " By degrees the abolition of slavery certainly might 
and assuredly ought to be effected, and that, too, by legislative 
authority." On the 9th of September of the same year he avowed 
his resolution "never to possess another slave by purchase;" add- 
ing, " it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by 
which slavery in this country may be abolished by law." 

In conformity with these views, the old confedez'ation of the 
United States, at a time when the convention for framing onr Con- 
stitution was in session, by a unanimous vote prohibited slavery 
forever in all the territory that then belonged to the United States ; 
and one of the very first acts of Washington, as President, was to 
approve a law by which that ordinance might " continue to have 
full effect." 

On the 6th of May, 1794, in the midst of his cares as President, 
he devised a plan for the sale of lands in Western Virginia and 
Western Pennsylvania, and after giving other reasons for his pur- 
pose, he adds: "I have another motive which makes me earnestly 
Avish for the accomplishment of these things ; it is, indeed, more 
powerful than all the rest, namely : to liberate a certain species of 
property which I possess, very repugnantly to my own feelings." 

And in less than three months after he wrote that Farewell Ad- 
dress to which we this day have listened, he felt himself justified 
in announcing to his correspondent in Europe his hopes for the 
future in these words : " Nothing is more certain than that Mary- 
land and Virginia must have laws for the gradual abolition of 
slavery, and at a period not remote." 

But though Virginia and Maryland have not been wise enough 
to realize the confident prediction of the Father of his Country — 
though slavery is still permitted in the District of Columbia, from 
which Madison desired to see it removed — the cause of freedom 
has been steadily advancing. The line of 36° 30', which formed a 
barrier to the progress of skilled labor to the southward, has been 
effaced. Our country, at one bound, crossed the Rocky Mountains ; 



ON THE TWF.XTY-SECOND OF FEBEUARV, 1SG2. 



in 



and the wisdom of our people, as tliey laid the foundations of 
mighty empires on the coast of the Pacific, has brong-ht about that 
to-day, from the Stl-aits of Behring to the Straits of Magellan, the 
waves of the great ocean, as they roll in upon the shore, clap their 
hands in joy, for along all that wide region the land is cultivated 
by none but the free. Let us be grateful to a good Providence 
which lias established liberty as the rule of our country beyond the 
possibility of a relapse. 

For myself, I was one who desired to postpone, or rather hoped 
altogether to avoid, the collision which has taken place, trusting 
that society by degrees would have worked itself clear by its own 
innate strength and the virtue and resolution of the community. 
But slavery has forced upon us the issue, and has lifted up its hand 
to strike a death-blow at our existence as a people. It has avowed 
itself a desperate and determined enemy of our national life, of our 
unity as a republic, and henceforward no man deserves the name 
of a statesman who would consent to the introduction of that ele- 
ment of weakness and division into any new territory, or the ad- 
mission of another slave State into the Union. Let us hope, rather, 
that the prediction of "Washington will prove true, and that Vir- 
ginia and Maryland will soon take their places as free States by the 
side of Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

Finally: the people of the United States must this day derive 
from the example of Washington a lesson of perseverance. We 
have been forced into a strife from which there has been no safe 
escape but by the manifestation of an immense superiority of 
strength. The ages that are to come will hold a close and severe 
reckoning with the men in power to-day on the methods which 
they may adopt for solving the question before them. In the pres- 
ent state of things the worst rashness is that which yields to com- 
promise from the feverishness of impatience. All the wise and 
good of the world have their eyes upon us. All civilized nations 
are Availing to see if we shall have the courage to make it manifest 
that freedom is the animating principle of our Constitution, and the 
life of the nation. But here, too, on this day we have only to read 
the counsels of Washington. When by his will he left swords to 
his nephews, he wrote: "These swords are accompanied with the 
injunction not to unsheath them for the purpose of shedding blood, 
except it be for self-defense, or in defense of their country or its 
rights ; and in the latter case to keep them unsheathed, and prefer 
falling with them in their hands to the relinquishment thereof." 



112 MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION ON FEBRUARY 22, 1SC2. 

The President of the United States has charged us this day to 
meet and take counsel from the Farewell Address of "Washington. 
We charge him in return, by his oath of office, by his pledges to 
the country, by the blood that has been shed and the treasure that 
has been expended, by the security of this generation, by the hopes 
of the next, by his desire to stand well with mankind and to be 
remembered in honor by future ages, to take to his heart this 
injunction of Washington. 

Young men of New York! suffer one more word before we 
part, in grateful memory of the dead who have died for freedom, 
for us and our posterity. Long after the voice which now addresses 
you shall be silent in the grave, it is for you to keep fresh the glory 
of Wiuthrop, of Ellsworth, and of all others who being like your- 
selves, in the flush of youth, went into battle surrounded with the 
halo of eternity, and gave their lives in witness of their sincerity. 
The whole country mourns the loss of Lyon, and will not be com- 
forted, enrolling his name by the side of Warren. They have 
passed away, but their spirit lives, and promises that our institu- 
tions,^ in so tar as they rest on freedom, shall endure forever more. 



WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 



[In nccordanee ■with the following proclamation, the Farewell Address of 'W^asli- 
inaton was read in public assemblies throughout the loyal States on the day desig- 
nated, which, attended with patriotic and devotional exercises, constituted such a 
celebration of the Birthday of Washington as has never been equaled in interest 
and impressiveuess: 

BY THE TEESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 

A PROCLAMATION. 

Wasiiington, WedncKctay, Feb. 19, 1?62. 
It is recommended to the People of the United States tliat they assemble in their 
customarv places, for public solemnities, on tlic twinty-s.con.l day of February in- 
stant, and celebrate the Anniversary of tlir nirllnlMy nf tlic h'alluT of his Country, 
by causing to be read to them his " Iiiiiin.rtal I'nnwi II Ad.lr.ss." 

Given under my hand and the seal of the liiited Stales al Washington, the nine- 
teenth day of Feliruary, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
sixtv-two, and of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-sixth. 

ABEAUAM LINCOLN. 
By the Fresidcnt, 

William H. Sewahp, Secretary of State.] 



Friends axd Ff.llow-Citizexs — The period for a new election 
of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United 
States not being for distant, and the time actually arrived when 
your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is 
to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, 
especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the 
public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have 
formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out 
of whom a choice is to be made. 

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured 
that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to 
all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a 
dutiful citizen to his country ; and that, in withdrawing the tender 
of service which silence, in my situation, might imply, I am influ- 
enced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no defi- 
ciency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported 
by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both. 

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to 
which vour suflfrages have twice called me, have been a uniform 



1 ] 4 AVASniNGTOX'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a deference 
for whiat appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it 
•would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with mo- 
tives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that re- 
tirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength 
of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even 
led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you ; but ma- 
ture reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our 
aftuirs Avith foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons 
entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. 

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as in- 
ternal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible 
with the sentiment of duty or propriety ; and am persuaded, what- 
ever partiality may be retained for my services, that, in the present 
circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove my deter- 
mination to retire. 

The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust 
were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this 
trust, I will only say, that I have with good intentions contributed 
toward the organization and administration of the government the 
best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable, l^ot 
unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, 
experience, in my own eyes — perhaps still more in the eyes of 
others — has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and 
every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me, more and 
more, that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will 
be welcome. Satisfied that, if any circumstances have given pecu- 
liar value to my services, they were temporaiy, I have the conso- 
lation to believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit 
the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate 
tlie career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to sus- 
pend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I 
owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred 
upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has 
supported me, and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of 
manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and per- 
severing, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have 
resulted to our country from these services, let it always be re- 
membered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our an- 
nals, that, under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in 



WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. ]]5 

every direction, Avero liable to mislead ; amid appearances some- 
times dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging; in situa- 
tions in which, not unfrcquently, want of success has countenanced 
the spirit of criticism — the constancy of your support was the 
essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by Avhich 
they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall 
carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing 
vows that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of it3 
beneficence ; that your union and brotherly affection may be per- 
petual ; that the free constitution, which is the work of your 
hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its administration, in 
every department, may be stamped with wisdom and virtue ; that, 
in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the aus- 
pices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a preserva- 
tion and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them 
the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and the 
adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop ; but a solicitude for your wel- 
fare, which can not end but with my life, and the apprehension of 
danger natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the 
present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend 
to your frequent review, some sentiments, which are the result of 
much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which ap- 
pear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a 
people. These will be afforded to you with the more freedom, as 
you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting 
friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his coun- 
sel ; nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent 
recepti'on of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occa- 
sion. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your 
hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or con- 
firm the attachment. 

The unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is 
also now dear to you. It is justly so ; for it is a main pillar in the 
edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity 
at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of 
that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to 
foresee that from different causes and from different quarters much 
pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your 
minds the conviction of this truth— as this is the point in your po- 



l]f; WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

litical fortress against which the batteries of internal and external 
enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often cov- 
ertly and insidiously) directed — it is of infinite moment that you 
should properly estimate the immense value of your national union 
to your collective and individual happiness ; that you should ^ 
cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it, ac- 
customing yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium 
of your political safety and prosperity ; watching for its preserva- 
tion with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest 
even a suspicion that it can, in any event, be abandoned ; and in- 
dignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to 
alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble 
the sacred ties which now link together the various parts. 

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. 
Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country 
has a right to concentrate your aftections. The name of American, 
which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt 
the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived 
from local discriminations. With slight shades of ditlerence, you 
liave the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. 
You have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed together; 
tlie independence aad liberty you possess are the work of joint 
counsels and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and suc- 
cesses. 

But these considerations, however powerfully they address tliem- 
selves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which 
apply more immediately to your interest ; here every portion of 
our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully 
guarding and preserving the union of the whole. 

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, pro- 
tected by the equal laws of a common government, finds, in the 
productions of the latter, great additional resources of maritime 
and commercial enterprise, and precious materials of manufacturing 
industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the 
agency of the l^orth, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce 
expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the 
North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated ; and while it 
contributes, in difterent ways, to nourish and increase the general 
mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection 
of a maritime strength to which itself is unequally adapted. The 
East, in like intercourse with the West, already finds, and, in the 



WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. J J7 

progressive improvement of iuterior comimmicatiou, by land and 
water, Avill more and more find, a valuable vent for tbe commodi- 
ties which it brings frona abroad or manufactnres at home. Tho 
"West derives from tho East supi)lios requisite to its growth and 
. comfort, and, what is perhaps of still greater conseipience, it must, 
of necessity, owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for 
its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future mari- 
time strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an in- 
dissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other teuuro 
by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether de- 
rived from its own separate strength or from an apostate and un- 
natural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically 
precarious. 

While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate 
and particular interest in union, all the parts combined can not 
fail to find, in the united mass of means and efforts, greater 
strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from 
external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by 
foreign nations, and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive 
from union an exemption from those broils and wars botweeu 
themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries, not 
tied together by the same government, which their own rivalships 
alone would be sufiicient to produce, but which opposite foreign 
alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. 
Hence, hkewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown 
military establishments, which, under any form of government, 
are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as par- 
ticularly hostile to republican liberty ; in this sense it is that your 
union ought to be considered as the main prop of your liberty, and 
that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of 
the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every re- 
flecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit a continuance of the Union 
as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether 
a common government can embrace so large a sphere ? Let expe- 
rience solve it. To listen to mere speculation, in such a case, were 
criminal. We are authorized to hope that a proper organization 
of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments for the re- 
spective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. 
It is well worth a full and fair experiment. With such powerful 
and obvious motives to union, afl:ecting all parts of our country, 



118 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, 
there -will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those 
who, in any quarter, may endeavor to weaken its bands. 

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it 
occurs, as a matter of serious concern, that any ground should have 
been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discrim- 
inations — Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western — whence 
designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real 
difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of 
party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepre- 
sent the opinions and aims of other districts. You can not shield 
yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings 
which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render 
alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fra- 
ternal affection. The inhabitants of our Western country have 
lately had a useful lesson on this head ; they have seen in the ne- 
gotiation by the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by 
the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfac- 
tion at that event throughout the United States, a decisive proof 
how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them, of a 
policy in the general government, and in the Atlantic States, un- 
friendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi ; they have 
been witnesses to the formation of two treaties — that with Great 
Britain and that with Spain — which secure to them everything 
they could desire in respect to our foreign relations, toward con- 
firming their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for 
the preservation of these advantages on the Union by which they 
were procured ? Will they not henceforth be deaf t<5 those ad- 
visers, if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren 
and connect them with aliens ? 

To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government 
for the whole is indispensable. No alliance, however strict, be- 
tween the parts, can be an adequate substitute; they must inevita- 
bly experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances, 
in all time, have experienced. Sensible of this momentous tiuth, 
you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a con- 
stitution of government better calculated than your former fur an 
intimate Union, and for the efficacious management of joxic com- 
mon concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, 
uninfluenced and unavved, adopted upon full investigation and 
mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distri- 



WASniKGTON-S FAREWELL ADDRESS. |10 

bution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing 
within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim 
to your confidence and your support. Kespect for its authority, 
compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties 
enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of 
our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter 
their constitutions of government ; but the constitution which at 
any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of 
the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea 
of the power and the right of the people to establish government 
presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established 
government. 

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations 
and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real 
design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular delibera- 
tion and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive to 
this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to 
organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force, to 
put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a 
party — often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the 
community — and, according to the alternate triumpiis of different 
parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill- 
concerted and incongruous projects of faction rather than the organ 
of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common counsels, 
and modified by mutual interests. 

However combinations or associations of the above description 
may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in tlio 
course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which 
cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to sub- 
vert tlie power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins 
of government; destroying, afterward, the very engine which had 
lifted them to unjust dominion. 

Toward the preservation of your government, and the perma- 
nency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you 
steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged 
authority, but also tliat you resist with care the spirit of innova- 
tion upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One 
method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the constitu- 
tion, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and 
thus to undermine what can not be directly overthrown. In all 
the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time 



]O0 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of gov- 
ernments as of other Imman institutions; that experience is the 
surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing 
constitution of a country ; that facility in changes, upon the credit 
of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from 
the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, 
especially, that for the efficient management of your common inter- 
ests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much 
vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indis- 
pensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with pow- 
ers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, 
indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble 
to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of 
the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to main- 
tain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the riglits of per- 
son and property. 

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in tlie 
state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geo- 
graphical discriminations. Let me now talvC a more comprehen- 
sive view, and warn you, in the most solemn manner, against the 
baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having 
its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists, 
under different shapes, in all governments, more or less stifled, 
controlled, or repressed ; but in those of the popular form it is seen 
in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened 
by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which, in 
difterent ages and countries, has perpetrated the most horrid enor- 
mities, is itself a friglitful despotism. But this leads, at length, to 
a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and mis- 
eries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek se- 
curity and repose in the absolute power of an individual ; and, 
sooner or later, the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or 
more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the 
purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which, 
nevertheless, ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common 
and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are suflicient to make 
it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain 
it. 

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the 
public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded 
jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part 
against another; foments, occasionally, riot and insurrection. It 
opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a 
facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of 
party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are 
subjected to the policy and will of another. 

There is an opinion that parties, in free countries, are useful 



WASniNGTOX-3 FAREWELL ADDRESS. ]01 

checks upon tho administration of the government, and serve to 
keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, withia certain limits, is 
probably true ; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriot- 
ism may look with indulgence, if not Avith favor, upon the spirit 
of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments 
purely elective, it is a spirit not to bo encouraged. From their 
natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that 
spirit for every salutary purpose. And tljere being constant danger 
of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion to miti- 
gate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uni- 
form vigilance to ])revent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead, of 
warming, it should consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking, in^afree 
country, should inspire caution in those intrusted with its adminis- 
tration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional 
spheres, avoiding, in the exercise of the powers of one department, 
to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroacliment tends to 
consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to 
create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A 
just estimate of that love of power and proneness to abuse it which 
predominate in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of tho 
truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the 
exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into 
different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the 
public weal, against invasions by the others, has been evinced by 
experiments, ancient and modern — some of them in our own coun- 
try and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as neces- 
sary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the 
distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be, in any 
particular, wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way 
which the constitution designates. But let there be no change by - 
usurpation ; for though this, in one instance, may be the instru- 
ment of good, it is the customary weapon by which free govern- 
ments are destroyed. Tho precedent must qhvays greatly overbal- 
ance, in permanent evil, any partial or transient benefit which the 
use can, at any time, yield. 

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosper- 
ity, religion aud morality are indispensable supports. In vain 
would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor 
to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest 
props of the duties of men and. citizens. The mere politician, 
equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. 
A volume could not trace all their connections with private and. 
l)ublic felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for 
property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation 
desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in 
courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition 
that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may 
be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of 
peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to ex- 



LofC. 



JOO WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

pect that national morality can jn-evail iu exclusion of religious 
principles. 

It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary 
spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with 
more or less force to every species of free government. Who that 
is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts 
to shake the foundation of the fabric ? 

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions 
for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the struc- 
ture of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential 
that public opinion should be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish 
public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly 
as possible ; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but 
remembering, also, tiiat timely disbursements to prepare for danger 
frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoid- 
ing, likewise, the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occa- 
sions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to dis- 
charge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned ; 
not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we 
ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs 
to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion 
should co-operate. To fiicilitate to them the performance of their 
duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that 
toward the payment of debts there must be revenue ; that to have 
I'evenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which 
are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant ; that the intrinsic 
embarrassment inseparable from the selection of the proper objects 
(which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive 
motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government 
in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for 
obtaining revenue which the public exigencies may at auy time 
dictate. 

Observe good faith and justice towai-d all nations; cultivate 
peace and harmony with all ; religion and morality enjoin this con- 
duct, and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It 
will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a 
great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel 
example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benev- 
olence. "Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the 
fruits of such a plan "would richly repay any temporary advantages 
which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that 
Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation 
with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by 
every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas ! is it ren- 
dered impossible by its vices? 

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than 
that permanent inveterate antipathies against particular nations, 
and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded, and that, 
in place of them, just and amicable feelings toward all should bo 



WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL AUDKESS. 



123 



cultivated. The nation which indulges toward another an habitual 
hatred, or an habitual fondness, is, in some degree, a slave. It !•» 
a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is snf- 
iicient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy 
in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer 
insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to bo 
liaughty and intractable Avhen accidental or trifling occasions of 
dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, 
and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resent- 
ment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the 
best calculations of policy. The government sometimes partici- 
pates in the national propensity, and adopts, through passion, what 
reason would reject ; at other times it makes the animosity of the 
nation subservient to projects of hostility, instigated by pride, am- 
bition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, 
sometimes perhaps the liberty of nations, has been the victim. 

So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation to another 
produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, 
facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases 
where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the 
enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the 
quarrels and wars of the latter, Avithout adequate inducement or 
justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of 
privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the nation 
making the concessions, by unnecessarily parting witli what ought 
to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a dis- 
position to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are 
withheld ; and it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens 
(who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or 
sacrifice the interest of their own country, without odium, some- 
times even with popularity ; gilding with the appearance of a vir- 
tuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opin- 
ion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compli- 
ances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation. 

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attach- 
ments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and 
independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford 
to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the art of seduc- 
tion, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public 
councils ! Such an attachment of a small or weak toward a great 
and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of .the 
latter. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to 
believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to 
be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that for- 
eign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican govern- 
ment. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial, else it 
becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead 
of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, 
and excessive dislike for another, cause those whom they actuate to 



124 



WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDKESS. 



see danger only on one side, and serve to vail, and even second, the 
arts of influence on tlie other. Real patriots, who may resist the 
intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious, 
■while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the 
people, to surrender their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, 
in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little 
political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed 
engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here 
let us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none of 
a very remote relation. Hence slie must be engaged in frequent 
controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our 
concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate 
ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her 
politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friend- 
ships or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to 
pursue a ditferent course. If we remain one people, under an 
eflicient government, the period is not far ofi:' when we may defy 
material injury from external annoyance, when we may take such 
an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve 
upon to be scrupulously respected — when belHgerent nations, under 
the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly 
hazard the giving us provocation — when we may choose peace or 
war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation ? Why 
quit our own to stand upon foreign ground ? Why, by interweav- 
ing our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our 
peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, 
interest, humor, or caprice ? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with 
any portion of the foreign world ; so far, I mean, as we are now 
ut hberty to do it ; for let me not be understood as capable of 
])atronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim 
no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is 
always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engage- 
ments be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it 
Ls unnecessary, and would be unwise, to extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establish- 
ments, on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to 
temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies. 

Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with all nations, are recom- 
mended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commer- 
cial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither 
seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences ; consulting 
the natural course of things ; diffusing and diversifying, by gentle 
means, the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establish- 
ing, with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable 
course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable tlie 



' WASHINGTON'S FAUEWELL ADDRESS. 125 

government to support them, conventional rules of intercourse, 
the best that present circumstances and mutual oj)inions will per- 
mit, but temporary, and liable to be, from time to time, abandoned 
or varied, as experience and circumstances sliall dictate ; con- 
stantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for dis- 
interested favors from another; that it must pay, with a portion 
of its independence, for whatever it may accept under that char- 
acter; that by such acceptance it may place itself in tlie condition 
of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being 
reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no 
greater error than to expect, or calculate upon, real favors from 
nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, 
which a just pride ought to discard. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and 
affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and 
lasting impression I could wish — that they will control the usual 
current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the 
course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations ; but if I 
may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some par- 
tial benefit, some occasional good, that they may now and then 
recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the 
mischiefs of foreign intrigues, to guard against the impostures 
of pretended patriotism — this hape will be a full recompense 
for the solicitude for your weltare by which they have been dic- 
tated. 

How far, in the discharge of my official duties, T have been 
guided by the principles which have been delineated, the public 
records, and other evidences of my conduct, must witness to you 
and the world. To myself, the assurance of my own conscience 
is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my proclama- 
tion of the 22d of April, 1793, is tlie index to my plan. Sanc- 
tioned by your approving voice, and by that of your representa- 
tives in both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure ha? 
continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or 
divert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I 
could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the 
circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in 
duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I 
determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it with 
moderation, perseverance, and flrmness. 

The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, 
it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe 
that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so 
far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been 
virtually admitted by all. 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without 
anything more, from the obligation which justice and humanity 
impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to 



m |2<3 WASHINGTO>f'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. \^ 

CM 

in maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity toward other 

nations. 
00 The inducements of interest, for observing that conduct, will 
Q best be referred to your own reflections and experience. AVitli 
me, a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to 
^ our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to 
® progress, -without interruption, to tliat degree of strength and con- 
Q sistency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the com- 
mand of its own fortunes. 

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am 
unconscious of intentional error, I am, nevertheless, too sensible 
of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed 
many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the 
Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. 
I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never 
cease to view them with indulgence, and that, after forty-flvo 
years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, tJie 
faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as 
myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. 

Relying on its kindness in this, as in other things, and actuated 
by that fervent love toward it which is so natural to a man who 
views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several 
generations, I anticipate, with pleasing expectation, that retreat in 
which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoy- 
ment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign 
influence of good laws under a free government — the ever favorite 
object of my hea.rt — and the happy reward, as I trust, of our 
mutual cares, labors, and dangers. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON". 

United States, Mth September, 1796. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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